Minister for Cities: Can Jamie Briggs find our commuter Holy Grail

HEY, you 15 million Australians living in the capitals, you at last have a brand new Minister for Cities.

Regions have a minister, there’s an arts minister, even the 21 folk in cabinet have their own minister. Now cities do, too.

It’s an overdue acknowledgment that two-thirds of the population who live in our major centres produce 80 per cent of our GDP — more if cities were more efficient.

Public transport enthusiast and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has given the job to junior minister Jamie Briggs.

But the direction will come from Environment Minister Greg Hunt, who has a proud family heritage of improving urban design.

Mr Hunt’s father Alan was a pioneer who designed the policy for green spaces which added to the livability of Melbourne.

Here are some objectives Mr Hunt and Mr Briggs might examine:

— An annual “livability index” with all cities rated against tough benchmarks. Mr Hunt had proposed this in 2011 when in Opposition. It was to have been conducted by a sustainable cities taskforce, a policy idea the Abbott government dropped.

— The 20-minute commute. No important destination — work, school, shops — would be greater than 20 minutes away by foot, bicycle or public transport. It is the holy grail of urban design and is being pushed by the Bus Industry Confederation.

— Joint operations by federal, state and local government to bring aboutimprovements. Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott saw only a limited federal role in this area, but Mr Hunt has declared “we are at a moment in history where each Australian city could bring together

federal, state and local authorities to lay out an overarching physical road map for the next 30 and 50 years”.

- Reduced energy use. Cities account for more than 60 per cent of total demand, through transport, cooling and heating buildings and running manufacturing.

— Finding more places for city people to live and cut the costs. The Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council calculates the gap between housing supply and demand stands at a shortfall of 228,000 new homes.

— Boosting public transport. The priority of the Abbott government was construction of major roads as part of a broad infrastructure program but most authorities argue for public transport and “active travel” such as cycling and discouragement of cars. Now that he’s without a taxpayer-funded CommCar, the bus-catching former PM would agree.